Ironlady Brigade
by TapTapAlways
Summary: Tony Starks youthful adventures with the better part of a squad of cheerleaders is the stuff or legends. Or the one where Tony Stark got drunk at 21 and this grants him a welcome legacy of Junior Iron Men many years later. Because who even cares about pronouns anyway? Certainly no one in the Stark family - possibly except Howard, and we don't talk about that.
1. Ironladies Assemble

_This is the sort of madness my muses come up with if left to their own devices. It is _very_ AU, borderline crack, and not to be taken too seriously._

_I do not own Marvel in any way and this story is written solely for enjoyment._

_TapTap_

It was in the middle of a press conference - and it was needless to say that Tony Stark was _right there_, completely visible and _obviously present_.

Still, there was a sighting of Ironman out there, and so the reporter who got the message _had_ to ask. Then again, it wasn't as if it was the first time a reporter - or even this one - asked a _really_ _silly_ question.

Clearing his throat after getting the word, the man spoke up a little hesitantly, "There has been a sighing right now of Ironman... what is the comment on this?" There was a brief "What?" from the room, followed by more reporters checking their cellphones, waiting for updates from their own, slower organisations.

Tony Stark, however, reacted with absolutely no surprise, merely a frown. "What colour is it?" When the reporter who had asked the original question merely looked at him blankly, Tony Stark rolled his eyes and said, with waning patience. "The _suit_ that's out there. What _colour_ is it."

"Eh," the confused reporter half-shrugged, "Red and gold?" To everyone's surprise Stark swore lightly, reaching for his latest generation Starkphone in a well-practised movement. "That'd be the Mark 109 - it's fully accessible in the Malibu workshop. Tells me nothing."

In the silent, still room where everyone merely waited, too out of their depth to know what to even ask about, Tony Stark's phone rang out signals as it called and waited for someone to pick up on the other side. It was still connected to the monitors after a presentation the R&D cheif and owner of Stark Industries had made earlier, so when someone did pick up, the video call showed up on the big screen for everyone to see.

It showed them what seasoned reporters would later be able to identify as the pool of the Stark mansion in Malibu, and more specifically, it showed a young woman in a black bikini swimming laps in said pool.

The bikini she was wearing was quite small, but it was built for swimming rather than posing, and her hair – which was pitch black and looked like it might be quite long - was unceremoniously tied back to let her swim. She was doing so with the diligence of someone who was actively training rather than just swimming about, and she heaved herself up easily upon reaching the edge, facing the cellphone someone else must be holding.

"Stark," she greeted him, all no-nonsence and effective manners. This was a skilled soldier, ready to act on a moment's notice. Or less. Stark swore again. "The Mark 109 is up in the air. I had hoped it was just you." She shook her head, easily getting to her feet out of the pool. "No, clearly. Want me to track it?"

"Well, if it is Anna I want you to _help_ her, if it's Nicole then I want you to get her _down_!" Stark's reply was rather loud as she moved, accepting the tovel reached out from behind the cellphone.

"Friday?" A male voice asked from behind the phone, and got an immediate reply which went through clearly. "Anna left me a message to call for backup should she not be back in 17 minutes and 43 seconds from now, young Sir," the AI said.

"Great. Yasmine, get up there and help, please, and Friday alert Jarvis, he can scan better from New York," Stark instructed, getting a polite reply from his junior AI to the affirmative. "Will do," the woman - Yasmine apparently - nodded, already moving out of the picture. In her stead, the phone was turned around and the assembled press could see a young man with half-blue eyes and dark hair, the very image of a young Tony Stark.

"They'll be up in a few minutes," the young man shrugged. "I can't really do much in this situation - not an Ironman." Tony Stark levelled him what could only be described as a stern gaze, patient and decidedly fatherly in a way none of the journalists would have thought.

"You do you, son. Remember what your grandad always said about Stark men." "That we must always be strong, you mean?" "Yes, and what do we say about what grandad thought about things?" As they talked, the young man walked, seemingly going inside as the light changed abruptly, and there were suddenly noises of quick, efficient activity.

The young man laughed. "That I must never _ever_ listen to a word of it?" "Good boy." A smile greeted this response, and a hurried, "By the way," the young version of Tony Stark shrugged again, "I got accepted into MIT. Not on a scholarship though..." he looked a bit sheepish, prompting the adult Tony Stark to look stern again. "Anthony Michael Stark, I swear..."

A laugh was his response. "Right. Thanks dad. I gotta go - I need to make sure none of my sisters get into their suits wet. Jeanette will call tonight - she made some sort of breakthrough with genes she thinks might give Bruce a hand with his current research. Love you, speak to you soon!"

He hung up before his father, apparently, could reply, but Tony Stark was smiling as he looked up to the shocked, dead silent room. "The Ironman Juniors - also known as the Ironlady Brigade, will be up in a few minutes to deal with the identified threat that made one of them go up there. We will keep you posted."

And because he knew the press best, really, Tony Stark walked out of the room immediately, without answering any more questions, because that was very much his only shot at doing so.


	2. I Am Your Father

_On to the next!_

_I am not Stan Lee (bless him) and do not own the Avengers._

_TapTap_

_Six months earlier._

She had black hair. Her eyes were a pleasing warm brown, and Tony Stark just felt instinctively protective of her the moment he overheard her - with just a slight nervous tinge in her voice - demand to see him at the front desk of the ground floor of Stark Tower. He'd never seen her before.

He was a spontaneous, often unwise man though, so he had simply stepped in and taken her upstairs with him.

Once up there, she had told him a story. It was a story about her mother, back when she'd been a cheerleader. It sounded to Tony as if she'd been in high school, but the girl had stressed that all the girls in the team had been either eighteen or nineteen.

It took a while before he realised why she had decided this was important. He did the maths in his head though, for no real reason except that his mind just worked that way. He had been 21 himself the year the girl was mentioning. She looked young, maybe fourteen or fifteen, but she told him she was sixteen, going on seventeen.

It didn't take much more for him to add up what she was trying to say to him, after that. The maths, after all, was way beneath what he was capable of - and he was Tony Stark. He _always_ ran the numbers.

The story she was telling was how this poor small town had sent off a bunch of students for a school trip - he remembered the place she named, very vaguely it must be said, and he'd indeed gone there with MIT at 21, just after his parents had died - and how her mother and several others from the cheer squad had liked to tell the story of how they'd slept around with Tony Stark there. Nine months before the babyboom, as they called it in the girl's hometown.

Now they had all been drunk - maybe not as drunk as Tony, but sufficiently drunk not to be taken seriously, nevermind the sheer craziness of the tale they told - and no one payed the story much mind. Including the girls, it must be said, who generally assumed they'd slept with a lookalike. Or dreamt it.

Tony however, he _did_. He remembered the weeks after the trip, remembered Rhodes hauling his ass off to rehab because he was worried sick (probably for good reason), and he didn't doubt that this mild-mannered but determined young girl was merely looking for some truth. So he asked Jarvis if he had his DNA on file - he did - asked the girl for a saliva sample and then he ran it in Bruce's lab himself.

If nothing else, they both deserved to _know_.

Of course, they had the answer before Tony was done coaxing takeout into the girl who might be his daughter. Who indeed _was_ his, Jarvis confirmed in the middle of her telling him about her druggy mum and how she just couldn't take it anymore.

His heart had already been going out to the girl, who had curled in on herself where she sat nursing a hot teacup between her hands at his bar, and when he heard she was actually his, that was _it_. If he was a dad, he was going to do it _right_ \- none of that Howard bullshit - he had lost time to make up for. Like right away.

He told her he couldn't house a runaway, but would deal with her mother via a lawyer and had little doubt she could come live with him. Strangely, he wanted her to, truly did, and he wanted to know how many more children he had out there.

He had never thought much about it, but there were others, there _had_ to be, and not just due to that old affair with the cheerleaders. He was going to find out.

Maria - he could hardly believe it, but that was her name - unpacked a hairbrush she'd borrowed from a friend - "who looks just like you," she had shyly added - and they ran the tests again.

Just like Maria believed, she had a half-sister. Possibly, she had many. And Tony was going to find every single one of them.

Maria stayed in Stark Tower as Tony got his laywers on the case and sued for custody. Being Tony Stark had its advantages, and he could push for speed. On the day of the court appearance, they entered the court together, his arm protectively around his daughter's tiny shoulders.

* * *

A large portion of the tiny town had turned up, and Tony Stark could not avoid realising how unreasonably many of the assembled teens had dark hair and slightly lighter eyes. Mostly, however, this was confined to the girls.

"Maria!" Maria's mum, Tony assumed, rose as they arrived, then gasped to see who her daughter was with.

The judge arrived and asked for silence before much more talk could be had, and the procedure was straightforward. The sixteen-year-old was asked to state her preference "Can I live with dad? Please!" had been Maria's input, and incomes were examined (Tony's raised some eyebrows, the mother barely had one) and then Tony's laywer unceremoniously did his job, stating why Maria's mother was unsuitable, how Tony couldn't possibly had known, and that Maria wanted to switch over to her father's name.

It was towards the end of proceedings when the judge asked for more details of why the conception was so muddy for both parties, that a girl stood up in the stands.

She had brown hair, Tony noted. Her eyes were a pleasant brown as well, just like Maria's, and he instinictively looked over at his daughter for confirmation. Could this be Anna, who was his, as well? Was she one of the cheerleaders' daughters, too?

"The story told about those ten days haven't been believed," the brownheaird girl stated, loud and clear. She looked considerably older than Maria, but judging by Maria's smile, was the same age. "It stands to reason though, that most of our class have one dad - we look similar and genetically, it makes sense! Some men have a predisposition to produce stronger sperm of one gender, and we're almost all girls!"

"You should go to college for genetics with that interest. You've got more than enough brains for it," Tony told her unceremoniously. She looked back at him. "We haven't got that chance here." "Jeanette is super clever. She's my best friend I told you about, who gave me the idea to look for you. Well, not on purpose," Maria soon-to-be-Stark told her father.

"Maria doesn't want to go to colleage on her own. You should go with her." Tony Stark simply told the girl he now knew was Jeanette - who indeed was on the list, too. "Don't worry," he interrupted the protest he could see coming. "I'll pay for it."

Her eyes narrowed further. "You don't even know if I'm yours. Stella is our age, but she knows who her dad is - she's light-blue-eyed platinum blonde, too, so I'm gonna rule you out."

Tony shrugged. "I would love to know - this goes for anyone whose mum has told this story who might be in here, please let me test, and I will happily let you know the truth - but you're my daughter's best friend either way. One of them. I'll happily send you all to college with her, if you want to go, just for that. It's the least I can do, if I cannot tell you who your dad is; shouldn't you be mine."

"I want to know!" The next girl to stand up was blue-eyed, with raven black hair, and Tony just _knew_, could _feel_ it just looking at her. This was confirmed when Maria shyly looked at her. "Anna... I had your hairbrush with me when I went to see dad," she confessed. "We _both_ match. We were right." The gasp that followed was succeeded by tears, as Anna was joined up in the stands by both Jeanette and Maria, all three holding one another.

"I... I am glad Anna knows where she comes from," the elderly woman next to her spoke up as the girls settled down. "I am her grandmother," the woman explained calmly to Tony Stark. "Her mother passed away a few years ago." "I will go with dad, I don't want to be a burden on you and aunt Mina any more," Anna said as she tried to calm herself down.

"Hey, you come if you'd like, but you'll never be a burden anyway," Tony reassured his daughter, making the judge make her mind up - he was clearly on the route to become a great dad. "If there's a money problem, then forget it - if you want to stay with your gran, I'll pay allowance. I could anyway, if they're struggling. Don't worry, honey bee. I'm just sorry it took me this long to find you." He met the steady eyes of Jeanette at the same time. "You, too."

"My mum left me to fend for myself, mostly," Jeanette looked back at him steadily, "And my little sister. From what I understand, you've only known we existed for a few weeks, couldn't _possibly_ have guessed before, and this is as soon as you could get here. Legally. That's not letting anybody down. You're here. And thank you."


	3. A Family Portrait

_Aaaand we're back in the "now"._

_Still don't own Marvel._

_TapTap_

Of course, as soon as he was out the room, Stark had gone to help his children out - anyone might have guessed as much. Back when the Avengers beat Loki and exposed that guy Thanos in time for some weird magician only referred to as "The Ancient One" to defeat him, Stark had proven himself to be both brave, and a hands-on kinda guy. He had proved it again since.

It was a favoured - and highly lucky - reporter who got the winning shot. Standing just outside Stark Tower, which was gleaming in an almost overpowering sunset, was a whole line of Starks.

The newspaper clipping which got put on walls everywhere - and you know something is important when people resort to physical papers - showed them all off, standing there smiling next to one another, names printed out beneath the picture.

At the far left stood the woman from Stark's pool, her hip-long raven hair now spread around her as she was wearing a black and dark blue Ironman suit. Apparently, her name was Jasmin Yasmine, if the reporter was to be believed. Next to her was a green-eyed girl in a suit in black and red, with aggressively red-dyed hair, named as "Amanda Stark". Beside her stood a blonde with brown eyes, named as "Nicole Stark", wearing a gold and black suit. She had her arm around a blue-eyed brunette in a red and gold suit, tagged in the article as "Anna Stevenson Stark".

Next to Anna, vaguely in the centre of the picture and in a suit that matched hers, stood Tony Stark, with his arm around his younger copy, who had a small girl with the same black hair on his shoulders. The newspaper called the trio "Tony Stark with his son Anthony Michael Jr Stark, and on his shoulders Simone Stark, age 11." Neither of the two latter had a suit on.

Nor had the brunette next to them, named as Jeanette, or the younger girl she had her arm around. The younger teenager looked different than the girls around her, something about her jawline, perhaps. It was just obvious to look at "Jeanette Stark and her little sister Josefina" that differently from Anthony and _his_ little sister, this connection was likely not paternal. Stark seemingly hadn't minded giving his name to an extra child. It only highlighted just how much Stark's children - that nobody had known he had - all looked like him.

Next to the two maternal sisters stood a darkhaired, brown-eyed girl looking quite alike the late Maria Stark, curiously also _named_ as "Maria Stark", in a suit of blue and gold. Next to her the last two girls - looking approximately the same age - were named as Patricia Johnson and Isabelle Stark Johnson. They both had on suits in bronze and green. Last in the line, stood a platinum blonde girl the same age as most of the others, without a suit and looking decidedly like she wasn't related to the rest of them. Her name read "Stella McCartney". Together they were all smiling at the camera, as the sunset painted the unmistakable building behind them in a fitting gold.


	4. Family Ties

_I do not own "the Avengers", but at least I've seen the film! (Just the first. Took me long enough)_

_TapTap_

The opinion panel discussion was broadcasted at prime-time, which was just a small indication of how huge interest was. Since when was there more than one Stark, let alone so many? Speculation was going _way_ overboard.

"Clearly," one so-called expert stated with conviction, "he did not raise them. We would have known." She looked at her fellow panel sternly. "But there's obviously family bonds."

"Stark could just be paying and not raising. There could still be a lot of conflict there," one man argued, while another frowned and added, "Or not - they all seem to have taken his name, which is an indication of belonging. They're mostly teenagers - if Stark did not raise them, he must have only recently came into their lives, so this must have been a conscious choice."

"They don't all have his name," the first man lobbed back, making a fourth person, another woman and the only actual expert, shake her head. "They're clearly not _all_ his. This," she looked down on some kind of notes, obviously, "Jasmin Yasmine is a bit too old to make sense as his child, and she doesn't look it, either. She seems more like someone the Black Widow might have introduced him to. Furthermore, the blonde - Stella - looks more like a treasured friend than a possible sibling. There's two other girls who might have brought extras, as well."

The first woman ran with this, nodding. "Stark's children are all very alike him. It seems to me that this Jeanette Stark," this woman didn't need notes, "has a little sister on her mother's side and Stark might very well have adopted her. The Johnsons are probably sisters as well."

The forth woman shook her head. "They are not as alike, I'd say. It is possible, but not necessary. The one who has Stark's name has a slightly darker colouring, which would make sense, but they could easily be cousins as well as sisters. The other girl has none of the tells, face wise, we can spot in all of Stark's offspring."

Needless to say, the panel of opinionists - and the one genetics expert - didn't actually conclude a single thing.

* * *

It was to the excitement of absolutely everybody, when Pepper Potts came on one of the evening shows, two days after the press conference, to announce SI's new launch within the clean energy field, and there was finally an opportunity for a TV personality to ask someone who actually knew Stark about it. And who better to ask than his CEO and girlfriend?

Impossible to shake as always, Pepper Potts absolutely didn't allow any distractions until she'd done her job and said everything she'd come around to say. The host tried, it must be said, but was politely shut down, very elegantly, and seemingly took the hint that if he made this difficult, he wouldn't get any questions answered at all. She'd just do her bit and see herself out, very stylishly. He obeyed.

Pepper Potts leaned back into the comfortable armchair she was sitting in, after finally being done with the presentation. It was very fascinating, as all new Stark Industries' tech reveals were, and likely would have raised eyebrows even if people _hadn't_ been listening with bated breath waiting to hear anything about Stark's kids sneak through. It didn't.

Taking the chance that he might be allowed questions now, the host congratulated her on the launch, asked one or two very dutiful questions about when it would be live, and then paused. Pepper Potts laughed.

"I think we all already know what you really want to ask. I think I might just put you out of your misery. Yes, Tony has several children. Most of them are the result of him and the greater part of a squad of at the time eighteen and nineteen-year-old cheerleaders getting very drunk on a school trip, the week after he lost his mother." Pepper Potts' eyes grew soft. "I didn't know him back then, of course, but Rhodey tells me Tony was in bad shape. No wonder - he was very close to Maria, even if there was perhaps not so much love lost between him and Howard, as everyone probably knows."

The host was visibly excited to get to talk about it. It was quite the scoop, all things considered. "Does this worry you at all?" he started off, "how has it affected your relationship?" Pepper smiled softly again. "I'm not going to lie, if they were a group of babies, I would be very concerned! But they're not. They're over sixteen years old, and after the appearance of Maria - the younger version - made him start looking, Tony has found another daughter of his. She's eleven. It's in many ways none of my business.

As far as it affecting our relationship, I'm still in New York and they've been living in his villa in Malibu, until they all go to college in the fall." Pepper paused, and her eyes grew even softer, her face one of soft delight, "not Simone, of course. Tony has been going back and forth, and she's mostly living with me, though she comes with him to Malibu occasionally. She's a blessing, and I look forward to being her mother as she grows up."

The aww was not only resounding audibly in the studio and on the internet, but was almost loud enough to hear throughout big parts of the world, as well.

"I will ask what the whole world is wondering," the host asked with a great big smile, "are all those kids his? A good job for a single class trip, I'd say!"

Waiting for the audience's laughter to die down, Pepper Potts smirked. "Well, Jeanette has informed me that not only do some men have a predisposition to father children predominantly of one gender - and I dare say we can notice a trend here! - but some larger groups of women apparently sync their cycles after one dominant 'alpha female'! Anthony, Maria, Nicole, Anna, Stella, Isabelle and Jeanette were all concieved that week, which just sounds incredible to me!" Pepper Potts winked to the audience. "Outrageous!"

"Sounds like quite a party!" The host commented, "and quite a big cheerleading team!" Pepper Potts nodded, becoming more serious. "I believe that they were. And it seems like Tony managed to sleep with at least a third of them. Their behaviour might have been influenced by Patricia's mother as well - she was the cheer captain and it had just come out that she was pregnant with her boyfriend of the time. She ended up being a bit late, and her sister a bit early - Isabelle and her cousin Patricia are born just three days apart."

"So this Patricia is not your boyfriend's daughter," the host clarified, the picture of the all outside Stark Tower appearing on the big screens behind them to help the audience to keep track. "No," Pepper confirmed, smiling, "nor is Stella - as you might be able to tell!" Pepper smiled. "They grew up closely together of course, being born at the same time, and has been all the way through school together. Amanda is not Tony's either, but she is Nicole's sister - she's a year older, actually - and Tony decided to adopt her. I am sad to say that several of the kids has had problematic family relationships and that most of them has chosen to just take their father's last name for that reason, while a few of them has family still and wanted to keep their names, as well.

Jeanette has a younger sister, too, and Tony did adopt her as well. Stella, Patricia and Isabelle, for that matter, all have parents of their own who look after them, though they were unlikely to be able to send them to college, and Isabelle has decided to keep both her mother's unmarried name as well as take Tony's. Anna lost her mother before Tony found her, but she has decided to keep the name of her grandmother and aunt who raised her," Pepper effectively ended all speculation. "Tony is sending them all off to college, including Stella and Patricia, not to separate them. He says it's the least he can do."

Accompanied by more awwing, and by many more questions by the eager host, Pepper gamely shared some tidbits about Tony and his children. "Simone just lost her grandmother and her mother died when she was four," she told the teary audience, "she was faced with ending up in an orphanage before Tony found her, just days before her grandmother passed away. She has bonded deeply with Anthony . I suspect they both feel a bit left out, with all the teenage girls around!"

She also shared some pictures; Josefina and Simone getting their nails painted by Patricia and Anna, Tony sitting on the couch in Stark Tower, looking down tenderly on his youngest daughter as she slept with her dark head on his chest, and somewhat unexpectedly, Jeanette Stark and Bruce Banner, doing science of some sort in a white-lighted lab. She was wearing, to general amusement, a black-and-white skirt and a black t-shirt with an arch reactor print in blue and white, which made a new storm of awws break out.

The last picture showed Stark and the majority of his children, all tinkering away in a workshop, surrounded by Ironman suits. Most of the girls had their own project, each in the same colour they'd been wearing on the previous photo, including Anna Stark who was now paired with a suit in purple and gold. Anthony Jr was included as well, seemingly working on Jasmin Yasmine's gear, while his father and little sister Simone seemed to drift around to help. It was all very... family-ish. In a supremely Stark sort of way.

The interview ended after this, but the entire joint force of the internet was seen cooing over the images for _days_.


	5. With the Passing of Time

_I do not own Marvel. Marvel at that! ;)_

_TapTap_

It did not take long for it to be confirmed that Jamin Yasmine was indeed a protege of the Black Widow. In fact, the Avenger confirmed as much herself, just days after Pepper Potts' first interview on the subject.

Tony Stark, in the months that followed, admitted that he'd asked her to join the Ironlady Brigade in an attempt to safeguard his daughters, though he did not use precisely those words.

The lady herself, stated much later in an official press release that it was a privilege to safeguard the brave young Starks, and that she was utterly proud of them, as well as grateful to have found a new purpose. It seemed that the feeling was mutual. It was, on every count.

Like he had done in the first few months of their newly formed family, Tony Stark took care to keep his children out of the spotlight, even if his son's other family made this very difficult by suing for all sort of things, trying to wrangle money out of the boy's father.

The Stark empire responded by drowning them in laywer costs and dragging up formalia until they had to drop the case. They never recieved a penny, and were all the worse of for their greed.

When it first happened, speculation ran wild about why Tony Stark would possibly be so cheap, but this stopped abruptly after an informal interview with an elderly lady was brought up on an independant news channel, and naturally went viral in a matter of hours.

This Mrs Stevenson, who identified herself calmly on the tape as Anna Stevenson Stark's grandmother, had her own, _very_ compelling solution to this mystery.

Her calm, factual retelling, even though tears of emotion glimmered in her eyes several times during her soft-spoken monologue was not only hard to doubt, but also entirely correct.

"When we first learnt that Anna was his daughter, I felt such relief that she was going to have a future. It had not been many seconds, however," the old woman told a spot just beyond the camera, her eyes unseeing as she remembered," before I got worried it limited her even further. We never had much, and she grew up to find herself burdensome, which was perhaps true enough finantially, though we never saw it this way.

I was scared for her, that she'd feel forced away from us for this reason, and then profoundly grateful when Tony told her no, she would never be a burden. She has always been our blessing, and I can only say bless the man for realising it." The woman shook her head, slowly, swallowing before she continued.

"He offered to pay an allowance for her, which was sweet, but might have also tempted her to stay with us, for that sake. He's an insightful man, however, Tony Stark, whatever you might think. He thwarted this possibility right away, just offering to do so anyway, if it'd help. I knew then she could go to college without feeling any guilt."

The woman finally looked into the camera. "In the end, she went to stay with him and her sisters - her best friends - and her father ended up having his laywers and accountants do a mock-up of what sixteen years' worth of allowance might have looked like. He is a very generous man, and I'll hear you say nothing else. We got all that money - it was enough for us to buy a family home, and we are forever grateful - unexpectedly one day, without asking, with a simple message that he was grateful we had looked after his little girl so well, and that her younger cousins would all be welcome to go to college after her, on him. I do not believe for a second that he is being stint on money with Anthony Michael's family. It seems to me that he wants to keep his son from being used, and I can only side with in on that score. He is a very responsible parent, no matter what you all might think."

No one doubted any single word she had said, and the rumours died right off.

The press never found out, but Anthony Stark sent his sister's grandmother a big box of chocolates after that interview.

* * *

Jasmin Yasmine had turned the question over for months, but in the end she went with all the Iron Ladies to college. She had never had the chance to go, after all, and she was not actually that much older than they were. Certainly not too old to make up for lost time, if there's such a thing. Josefina Stark, who was quite the little character, even if only fourteen years old, decided on a boarding school and left at the same time. Her adoptive father let her go, but only after making sure she knew she was welcome to stay. In the end, they all gracefully accepted that she found this easier, and that she needed to do things in her own way.

This left Tony - well out of his party days when he'd been frequenting his Malibu villa the most - permanently in Stark Tower with his little Simone and an increasingly I-want-babies-kind-of-wistful Pepper.

It was when the Christmas break was due within days and the Tower was decorated with tinsel, after Simone went to bed and the couple stayed up with some champagne, that Ironman himself decided to be traditional for the only time in his life and honest-to-Thor went down on one knee to ask Pepper to marry him.

She spent a good amount of time just staring, but luckily Simone had wandered out of bed and her gasp of surprise from over in the doorway woke Pepper enough from her stupor for her to say _yes_.

Her pregnancy was announced in May.

* * *

Jeanette, the family geneticist, had made them all roll her eyes whern she randomly came across a girl on vacation who she claimed looked so much like them she could be a sister, and insisted to test the bemused girl who had just left an orpahanage against her own genes, only to shock them all by coming away saying they were likely _cousins_.

Tony Stark was heard publicly stating that he was happy to have a niece, but that he was very surprised to figure out Howard had had a bit of a past before Maria.

He did not express this with as polite words as all of that, but he would have likely been less amused and more angry if there was any indication this girl's mother was closer to his own age. As it was, firm evidence pointed to her having been conceived well before Howard even met Maria - backed up by Steve Rogers who had actually heard of the niece's grandmother back in his time - and so that was that. No one seemed to mind an even more expanding family, and why should they? In the end, Stark merely sent yet another young woman to college, and it wasn't as if he couldn't well afford it.

* * *

The first official photographs of Pepper, Tony, Simone and new-born Natalia Maria Stark were taken in central park, where the couple were walking one afternoon, hand in hand looking extatically happy while recently turned twelve-year-old Simone was pushing a pram with her little sister in it, rapture on her face.

There were bodyguards in attendance, carefully keeping their distance and making sure any photographers did the same. Tony's driver since many years, Happy Hogan, was one of them.

The picture of the day was one lucky shot, where Tony Stark was seen looking over at his two daughters, pure devotion and love on his face. It was almost as well-searched as the image of him with his nose in Pepper's hair, kissing her temple. It was a perfect afternoon.

* * *

Curiously, for all that the Starks were constantly in the public eye, there was not a single picture leaking out from Mr and Mrs Stark's wedding day. Indeed, it was not even publicly known _when it was_, and reporters and the public alike were kept guessing for _years_ if they had married before their daughter was born, or _after_.

Their wedding had been a private affair, though as grand as anything Tony Stark was ever involved in, and only children, Avengers and the odd friend had even been told the date.

And that was precisely how they wanted it.


	6. Brother My Brother

_I do not have time to author's-note... we have a story to tell!_

_No copyright infringement is intended._

_TapTap_

Anthony Stark Jr - referred to only as Anthony, mostly, as his father went only by Tony (as he had been overheard a number of times shouting at his sisters when they insisted on teasing him with "Junior") - had been vlogging on and off since his early uni days. He did tech blogs and art blogs as well, and being a Stark he had quite the following. It did not hurt that he was also very funny; whatever subject he took on.

It was a special treat, however, when he appeared on camera on an ordinary Wednesday, out of the blue in a video named as "The Most Exciting and Important News EVER".

"Hello viewers!" He greeted his fans with a blinding smile in the short video, looking like he had just been handed the sun. "The most amazing and fantastic thing has just happened! I, it is wonderful, have gotten a baby _brother_! That's right, dad has become the father of another boy in the early hours of this morning! We're all fantastically exited, but honestly most of all me!"

This was the official first announcement of the news - though said news had certainly been expected - though SI made an official statement of the news later that same day.

It was ten days later when an equally excited Anthony Stark vlogged again, this time showung off his little brother, an adorable bundle his proud big brother proclaimed to be called "Anthony James Stark." His older brother was over the moon; Pepper Potts and Tony Stark had quite the big family, all things considered, and this was their second child of their own, but Anthony had been the only boy for a long time. He seemed to be the only one who truly cared what gender the baby were, but all the rest of the family seemed grateful for any new addition, boy or girl, and little James was obviously very welcome.


	7. The Ties That Bind

_This tiny story stemming from a very persistant plotbunny has been a pleasure to write, but I am also delighted to report that this fluffy, white, adorable but _very_ stubborn bunny now has gone to sleep on my sofa. This is therefore the last chapter._

_I do not claim to own Marvel. The films would be _very different_ if I did, and we all know it. (But if Marvel ever requires a film starring the Cloak and inexplicably filled with fluff, they are welcome to call.)_

_TapTap _

It was a simple family photo, taken out on Anna and Maria Stark's Italian ranch, by the looks of it. Tony Stark's oldest kids were in their mid-twenties by now, all grown up and successfully out of college.

Tony Stark was standing in the middle of the picture, one arm adoringly about his wife, Mrs Virgina "Pepper" Stark, and the other cradling his newborn baby girl to him. He was looking down at the infant, his expression one of sheer rapture. Pepper was smiling, both her arms around her eldest daughter, nine-year-old Natalia Maria, and the little family was surrounded on every side by the bigger one. Tony's rediscovered niece was beaming next to Anthony Jr, who had his five-year-old little brother James on his shoulders, like he had been carrying Simone in that old picture from so long ago now.

Simone herself was standing between the Johnson cousins, beaming like they all were. Anna, Maria, Nicole and Amanda Stark - who still sported the reddest of red hair - were clustered slightly behind their father, brother and stepmother, while Jeanette was standing to the left of the picture, her little sister beside her and her arm wrapped tightly around Bruce Banner. He looked peaceful at last, kissing her temple without looking at the camera; all his attention focused on his wife since only a few weeks' time.

Stella Macartney was married, divorced and had a distinctly platinum-blonde baby in her arms, but she was still there with her best friends since forever.

Hawkeye was standing to the right side of the picture, family around him as well, with his wife on one side and Natasha on the other; Jasmin on the Black Widow's other side, still watching over her charges, as devoted as ever.

Everyone was there; a big, happy, united family, and no one would have it any other way.


End file.
